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Local health department employee charged with fraud

Keish Kitchen, 41, faces one count each of grand theft, organized scheme to defraud and offense against intellectual property. She was arrested Sunday and bonded out of the Leon County jail the same day.(Photo: Leon County jail)

A former state Department of Health employee was arrested in connection with what investigators say was a scheme that netted her more than $12,000.

Keish Kitchen, 41, faces one count each of grand theft, organized scheme to defraud and offense against intellectual property. She was arrested Sunday and bonded out of the Leon County jail the same day.

Kitchen was an employee in the environmental health division of the Leon County Health Department. The environmental health section is responsible for permitting, inspection, regulatory and environmental assessment and surveillance services.

From January 2014 through June 2016, Kitchen is accused of collecting fees for environmental health permits and not depositing money and creating and deleting transactions so they would not appear in daily logs.

She resigned from her post in June 2016 after a complaint was leveled against her claiming she inappropriately accepted two applications.

State investigators say over the course of two years, Kitchen created and deleted 59 transactions for a total of $8,825 and fraudulently issued 29 permits totaling $3,595.

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.